Ann DeWitt (left) and Kim DeMarchi discuss common parenting challenges on their new Internet radio show, "Passport to Parenting."Passport to Parenting

Parents are the target of a new Internet radio show based in the Portland area, "Passport to Parenting," that aims to help moms and dads teach social and life skills through semi-confessional, advice-filled and humorous conversations between two local certified parent educators.

Topics since the show began in September have included parenting styles, sibling relationships, power struggles, setting limits and morning madness and bedtime battles. DeMarchi and DeWitt discuss their topics through the prism of the Positive Discipline model, which emphasizes connection, mutual respect and encouragement, long-term effectiveness, social and life skills, and personal capability.

I talked with DeWitt recently about the show.

How it started: DeWitt and DeMarchi had been working with various medical companies on presenting parenting classes to members, but the potential clients "kept saying it was very difficult to get people to attend parenting classes," DeWitt said. "They would put all of this time and money into scheduling them and marketing them and getting dinner there and childcare ... then they would have 12 people sign up. They wanted something that would reach a greater number of people."

Why Internet radio: It's a good medium for parenting discussions because many parents can't or won't commit to attending classes -- doing so often means giving up precious family time, DeWitt said. "It's also hard to commit, I think, because you don't know the philosophical orientation of the people you're going to listen to until you've already been there," she said.

Having the show in podcast form also provides the public with an easier way to access parent education, DeWitt said. "They can do it in their car or while they're on the elliptical trainer at the gym -- they can listen to it in their kitchen while they're cooking," she said. "It's not something that takes you away from your busy life."

Why Positive Discipline: DeWitt said she likes that this parenting method is research-based and that it offers many different parenting tools. "I've seen people with very different families who use Positive Discipline as their parenting method," she said. "It doesn't have anything to do with particular values that you hold as a family," unlike other methods that are religion-based or have specific agendas.

DeWitt also likes Positive Discipline because it empowers and respects children. "It takes parents out of the role of having to figure everything out for their kids and moves them more into the role of support and facilitator," she said. It takes the helicopter parent approach and "turns that completely upside down," she said.

"It's not a rigid program," she added. "You can take what works (for you) and leave the rest. ... As parents you define the values of the family and you hold kids to standards, but it's not nearly as top-down as some of the other models."

Picking the topics: When choosing the discussions for the show, DeWitt and DeMarchi rely on their experience doing workshops and teaching parenting classes to PTAs, at a local fitness club and elsewhere. "We know the ones that kind of sell, that get people interested," DeWitt said.

They're also open to suggestions from people who would like them to address a particular parenting struggle. "It will never be a call-in show, but definitely getting some feedback about what people want to hear about will be something that we're doing," DeWitt said.

She and DeMarchi also try to offer resources such as new authors and books and new studies.